Britain Commits Billions to Green Growth

At least its a start.
S&L, I quess Britain must be blinded by alternative energy just like me.

Britain commits billions to green growth

LONDON | Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:20pm EDT
(Reuters) - Britain will commit around 3 billion pounds ($4.72 billion) to fund low-carbon technology as part of a review chiefly aimed at cutting its budget deficit, the government said on Wednesday.

As part of the review, the government said it would cut half a million public sector jobs, raise the retirement age and slash the welfare state in the biggest spending cuts in a generation.

"Like the rest of the public sector we have taken some tough decisions, but we remain on course to deliver on our promise to be the greenest government ever," Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said.

The Conservative finance minister George Osborne pledged 1 billion pounds for investment in a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration plant at a power station as part of a UK goal to become a world clean technology leader.

The government said it was still committed to funding four plants in total.

Utility company E.ON said earlier on Wednesday that it had withdrawn from the government's CCS demonstration competition, leaving Iberdrola's Scottish Power plant at Longannet as the only remaining contender.

Osborne said the government would set aside another 1 billion pounds for its Green Investment Bank (GIB) and 860 million pounds for its renewable heat incentive, which pays homes and businesses for using renewable heat, such as ground source heat pumps.

It would devote 200 million pounds mostly to the development of offshore wind power projects.

"I have set aside 1 billion pounds of funding for the bank but I hope much more will be raised from the private sector and from the proceeds of future government asset sales."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said earlier on Wednesday in a letter to Liberal Democrat members that the GIB would be funded with at least 2 billion pounds but the government was originally aiming for funding of around 6 billion pounds.

"One billion pounds for the green bank was more than some feared but it still about a quarter of what's needed to have a big impact on green energy and growth," said Steve Lang, head of clean energy at Ernst & Young.

INCENTIVES

The government plans to introduce the renewable heat incentive in 2011-2012, but not in the form of the previous Labour Government's renewable heat levy, which the coalition said was too complex.

It should increase UK renewable heat production 10-fold over the next 10 years, the government said.

COPENHAGEN | Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:14am EDT
(Reuters) - The global offshore wind turbine market is expected to almost double this year after record growth last year and is seen expanding briskly to 2015, Denmark's MAKE Consulting said on Wednesday.

Last year the offshore turbine market grew by 80 percent from 2008, with 620 megawatts of capacity installed and the total installed base rising above 2 gigawatts, the wind energy specialist said in a preview of a new report.

"2010 is expected to almost double the annual installed capacity with several large projects coming online primarily in northern Europe," MAKE Consulting said.

Offshore wind in Europe has taken off in recent years partly because offshore wind parks can overcome a "not-in-my-backyard" attitude among the public to onshore energy projects.

Wind parks on land generate the overwhelming majority of the world's wind energy.

"The offshore market is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43 percent between 2010 and 2015 and account for approximately 8 percent of the global wind power market in 2015," MAKE said.

The near term development will mainly take place in northern Europe, and offshore wind is expected to account for around 20 percent of European wind power installation in 2015, MAKE said.

"The global offshore project pipeline is rapidly expanding," MAKE said.

Britain and Germany have extensive project pipelines accounting for around 65 percent of current known projects in northern Europe, it said.

"Offshore activity in Asia is mainly driven by China, which is set to be the next large offshore market with South Korea in second place," the consultancy said.

The first offshore wind project has yet to be installed in the Americas, where current development activity is limited to the United States and Canada, MAKE said.

Swedish power company Vattenfall's 300 MW Thanet, inaugurated in September in Britain, is the world's biggest offshore wind park currently in operation, followed by two wind parks off Denmark.

But those projects will be superseded by the likes of the 1,000 MW London Array wind farm in the Thames Estuary, phase 1 of which is expected to be completed in time for the London Olympics in 2012.